Monday, July 30, 2012

July 21st, 2012. We set out to look
for more routes with gravel roads - preferably not mowed - that would be good
places to look for wildflowers. We found ourselves in Greene County, Georgia –
not far east of the Scull Shoals Experimental Forest. In fact, if we continued
on the forest road we use to get to the Scull Shoals EF, we would reach this
area. We just don’t go this way often – that may have to change.

It’s probably also important to note that, after
months without any rain and temperatures in the 90s F, we’d had about five very
welcome inches of rain. I hadn’t thought much about it, but these are ideal
conditions for mushrooms to appear.

After leaving the Amanita jacksonii, we
continued on gravel roads and turned on a road that traveled through a heavily
shaded area beside a small creek that was flowing fast after the recent rains.
We found quite a variety of mushrooms – seven in all - more than we’re used to
seeing in a short section of road. They were growing on an embankment separated
from the road by a slippery ditch so I couldn’t get close to them to determine if they had gills or were polypores.

An Amanita sp.
It’s interesting how the partial veil was disintegrating

Yet another
mushroom that only showed its cap

The road
emerged from this shaded area into planted pine forests where we found…

A young
bolete.

The
remainder need some perspective…

*****

The cap on
this mushroom was 6-7 inches in diameter

*****

Another
Boletus sp.? The perspective shot for this mushroom seemed somewhat humorous. There
are two more mushrooms above and to the right behind some pine needles. It’s as
if they’ve sent this mushroom out and are waiting to see what happens before
they come out.

*****

This was a
captivating sight. This mushroom looked a little alonely among the young pine tress. It was
6-7 inches tall and looks like an Amanita sp.

I wish I
knew more about American mushrooms. It’d be fun to be able to identify them all.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

July 21st, 2012. We set out to look
for more routes with gravel roads - preferably not mowed - that would be good
places to look for wildflowers. We found ourselves in Greene County, Georgia –
not far east of the Scull Shoals Experimental Forest. In fact, if we continued
on the forest road we use to get to the Scull Shoals EF, we would reach this
area. We just don’t go this way often – that may have to change.

It’s probably also important to note that, after
months without any rain and temperatures in the 90s F, we’d had about five very
welcome inches of rain. I hadn’t thought much about it, but these are ideal
conditions for mushrooms to appear.

I posted this photo, taken in Wilkes County,
Georgia, in July last year. This was a particularly attractive group of these
mushrooms.

W stopped to consult the gazateer and I saw a
couple of American caesars in the woods but they were pale orange; not as
pretty as the deeper red-capped ones. So I kept my eyes open and finally
spotted some nice specimens.

The group we spotted on July 21st
were scattered over a larger area and…

partially obscured by pine needles.

I cleared away pine needles from one that was
out in the open and, finally, found what I’d been looking for – the cup or
volva that is diagnostic forAmanita (and Volvariella)species. I was
taught that this was a method for recognizing amanitas but, search as I have, I
have never seen a volva still attached to one. This day was my lucky day…One, and only
one of the amanitas in this group had a volva!

A closer view of the volva on this mushroom. It
was partially filled with water from recent rains.

All mushrooms have the a partial veil that
‘connects’ the cap to the stem at the annulus or ring; sometimes remnants of
this veil are still attached to the stem after the mushroom has opened.
Amanitas have another veil, the universal veil, that encloses the entire
mushroom as it emerges from the ground. As the mushroom develops, the veil
breaks and remains attached – the volva - to the base of the mushroom.

Daniel Spurgeon at ‘Nature at Close Range’ has a
wonderful photograph of this mushroom at an earlier stage where the volva is
much more evident.

Amanita
jacksonii is cutest at this stage but it wouldn’t do justice to the species not
to photograph a fully opened mushroom that we found further along this same
road.

Postscript.
I ride to work in a vanpool. A few days after spotting these mushrooms, I
spotted more in the front lawn of a house along our route. There were two
groups in the early stages of opening. The spores had obviously washed down the
slope and the mushrooms were arranged in two rows down the slope. I’m going to
have to remember to take my camera around this time next year and try to get
photographs of these.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

July 14th, 2012. Some of the Maroon Carolina
Milkvine (Matelea carolinensis) seed pods are ripening. And right on schedule,
Large Milkweed bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus) have turned up out of nowhere to
mate and lay eggs on the pods. The resulting young will feed on the seeds of
milkweeds and milkvines.

A ripening Maroon Carolina Milkvine seed pod ripening; this
species belongs to the spinypod milkvines.

A mating pair of Large Milkweed bugs.

Before
long, the nymphs will emerge and will feed on the seeds

A
closer view of an individual nymph

The
milkvine seeds. The ‘meat’ is the raised segment in the center of the seed.

The
nymphs will eat the meat and leave a halo. One of the reasons the world isn’t over-run
with milkweeds and milkvines.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

July 7th, 2012. We were returning along Hunt Camp Road
to Grant Mill Road when I spotted a Hoary Edge (Achalarus lyciades) butterfly
feeding at the top of a Hoarymountainmint (Pycnanthemum incanum)
bush. I’d photographed one the previous day at the Scull Shoals Experimental Forest (Green County, Georgia) but W hadn’t seen it. We backed down the road and stopped. What I
saw then was a Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus
clarus). There’s no way that I’d confuse the two but it was mind-bending
until we walked over to the bush to find one of each species feeding. We spent
some time photographing them with varying success in the fading light. And, then, there was a surprise.

Hoary
Edge (Achalarus lyciades)

This photo shows the underside of the wings
that gives the Hoary Edge its name

Another photo that shows the gold pattern
that’s visible on the upper side of the wing. The late afternoon light
illuminated these spots nicely.

Surprisingly,
the Hoary Edge flew down and landed on W’s arm in search of salts.

Silver-spotted
Skipper (Ergyreus clarus)

The underside of the wings of the
Silver-spotted Skipper

Again, the gold pattern that’s visible on the
upper side of the wing was illuminated in the late afternoon light.

Bee Assassin (Apiomerus crassipes)

While we were concentrating on photographing
the butterflies on the upper side of the leaves, a dark predator was lurking
under one of the leaves. An assassin bug, the Bee
Assassin (Apiomerus crassipes).

The
bug was hanging out on the underside of one of the leaves waiting for an
unsuspecting insect to stray within range. I disturbed it and it…

retreated
along the stem. I wanted to get a shot of…

its
proboscis, which it injects a toxin into its prey to suck the juices.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

July 7th – July 14th, 2012. Rosepinks
(Sabatia angularis) are one of my favorite wildflowers. With the drought, I’d
almost given up hope of seeing them in bloom this year. But then we saw them in
the Wilson Shoals WMA (Banks County, Georgia) and, last weekend, in Hancock
County, Georgia, where we saw them last year.

I wanted to learn more about this
plant since it was obvious that the style was not fully extended when the
flower first opened but became erect over a number of days to expose the stigma
for fertilization. Marvin at Nature in the Ozarks demystified the process.

Sabatia angularis is unusual in
being protandrous, meaning that the anthers release their pollen before the
stigma of the same flower is receptive to fertilization. This minimizes
self-fertiliation and promotes cross-fertilization to maximize genetic
diversity in the species. There is a good description of this process here.

The plants we found were blooming profusely

When
the flowers open the style, which is bifurcated but twisted closed to prevent
access of pollen to the stigma, lies back against the petals with the branches
of the stigma folded until the flowers supply of pollen is depleted.

The
style then stiffens, lifting it off the petals.

*****

*****

*****

The
bifurcated section begins to unwind, until the...

style
with stigma stand erect above the petals. The stigma is then accessible to
pollen from other flowers.

Sabatia angularis is
known by the common names Rosepink Rose-pink, Bitter-bloom, Common Marsh-pink,
and Square-stem Rose Gentian. Plants are biennials. They are native to the
United States where they occur in the Eastern United States (excepting the New
England states) to Florida and west to Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.
In Georgia, they occur mainly in counties in the Piedmont. We saw these first
in Gilmer and Pickens counties in North Georgia in July, 2010; last year, we
saw them in Taliaferro, Hancock, and Jasper counties.

My
find of the day, plant-wise, was a couple of buckeye bushes fruiting. I’ve
seen a lot of bushes in bloom but none fruiting. Based on the fruit, I believe
these are Aesculus sylvatica (Painted Buckeye). Time will tell – if we can
return during their blooming season next year.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

July 7th, 2012. We wandered north and found ourselves
at the Wilson Shoals Wildlife Management Area in Banks County. We’d visited
this WMA previously in … As
we did last time, we entered the WMA from the Yonah-Homer Road (GA-51) and
drove north on Grant Mill Road.

We
started to see Pycnanthemum incanum (Hoarymountainmint) plants. These are much more ‘heavily
frosted’ at these higher elevations in the mountains compared with the lightly
‘frosted’ leaves on plants lower in the Piedmont.

*****

The
flower had is a cyme with many small individual flowers that are easy to
overlook.

And
my find of the day, plant-wise – a couple of buckeye bushes fruiting. I’ve seen
a lot of bushes in bloom but none fruiting. Based on the fruit, I believe these
are Aesculus sylvatica (Painted Buckeye).

The
road dropped down into an unnamed creek valley where we found a

wild
ginger, and

a
viola, probably Viola walteri (Prostrate Blue Violet). We’ll have to
check these out in the Spring.

The
road climbed out onto a ridge where we found…

Cirsium
vulgare (Bull Thistle). This plant serves as the reminder of a missed
opportunity. We stopped beside the plant and I started to get out before I
realized that a Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele)was feeding on the flower. By
the time I saw it, I had startled it and it flew off into the woods. It’s good
to know, however, that this is an area to look for this butterfly whose range
doesn’t extend much south of here in Georgia.

*****

Immediately
across the road was a plant that looks like Aralia spinosa (Devil's
walkingstick) just starting to bloom. Wish I’d looked at the stems more closely
to be sure.

We
drove a along the road until the road dropped precipitously and we couldn’t see
how steep it would be to go further. The road was covered with loose gravel
and, even with four-wheel drive we decided it would be prudent to turn around.
When we started back to Grant Mill Road, we spotted…